In recent years, the television has arguably become the predominant entertainment medium. With this popularity, viewers increasingly demand components or services that enable them to facilitate the time shifting of programming to fit their busy schedules, when tuning in to watch an original broadcast is inconvenient. For many years, viewers have been able to record their favorite television broadcasts via video-cassette recorders (“VCRs”), and play back the recorded content at a more convenient time. More recently, many viewers have begun to utilize digital recording systems, often integrated into a set-top box or other system, which provides access to broadcast content from a cable television provider, or the like.
While VCRs and integrated digital recording systems are effective when used properly, and have been incorporated into the entertainment systems of millions of households across the country and throughout the world, many viewers find that programming their VCRs or other recording devices to record their favorite content is both problematic and frustrating, and often times, for one reason or another, results in the desired content not being recorded as the viewer intended. Many solutions to this ongoing problem have been proposed, including such things as VCRPlus® codes, and the like, but the problem has persisted. Moreover, the addition of a VCR or integrated digital recording system to one's entertainment system represents a significant cost incurred by each viewer.
Interactive television provides viewers with an alternative source for information, such as news, weather, sports coverage, or the like, which the viewer may have missed because of his or her unavailability to view an original broadcast having the information, or because of a problem encountered while attempting to program a recording device as discussed above. Interactive television generally comprises a video technology in which a viewer interacts with standard television programming. A typical use of interactive television includes Internet access.
While interactive television may provide access to some form of the information missed by the viewer, such as headlines, summaries, or written descriptions of news reports, much of the originally broadcast content is unavailable because broadcasters often find it inefficient to rebroadcast or redistribute programming content because of the costs associated with converting the content into a format that is easily distributed, or easily made available via alternate access methods, such as for example, interactive television.